**Please read test notes below first**
Conclusion:
I'm really looking forward to Red's E-ND and Kippertie's Strata-ND.
There is no comparison to be made between solid ND's and VND's, unfortunately no voodoo magic as some may hope. Please feel free to ask any questions in the comments below or on Reduser FB group. Finally, go watch CVP's review- its much better and far more informative. I did this test primarily for my own curiosity. Jake is also 100x better looking and sounding than me.
Quick Test Notes:
- Please don't look too much into sharpness. Using a stills lens and swapping adapters I didn't maintain critical sharpness all the time. Even for the "sharpness test" I was more curious about if any of the filters would cause chromatic aberration than anything else. In my actual usage I wasn't able to discern any sharpness differences, but again I am not the best evaluator of this and there are too many variables for this (manufacturing tolerances on the EF, RF, and filter insert side of adapter, the camera itself, etc). Some shots were just full on out of focus (for example breakthrough on the indoor polarization test) but I didn’t notice until it was too late.
- "Clear" was a straight adapter (no drop-in filters, not a clear filter) and I changed the shutter angle to be able to expose on the f-stop.
- Indoor circular polarizer test - I stuck a CPL in front of the lens for fun just to see what happens.
- The outdoor scenes please only take note of the color shifting. The clouds were in/out of the sun and with limited time I couldn't wait for a better clear day and exposure/shadows a bit all over esp on the first outdoor test.
- Indoor polarization test - pay particular attention to the colors on the mac monitor, reflections below it, and color of the table.
- All tests were on the EF Sigma 35mm ART lens.
- All test footage shot on the RED V-Raptor in 8k 17:9.
Special thanks to Melvin for lending me the Canon drop-in adapter, Sigma 35mm ART, and Canon VND. Also, AV8 for lending me the EF adapter for Revolva (ND wheel used was mine from my PL revolva). Meike, Kolari, and Breakthrough I purchased with my own money.
